University of Bristol graduate cared for siblings and mother

Chloe Fussell graduated with her family watching on

A student who helped care for her disabled siblings and terminally-ill mother from the age of five has graduated from university.

Chloe Fussell, who went to 11 different schools, plans to go into teaching after graduating from the University of Bristol.

The 24-year-old said she wanted to help pupils "by being the person I needed when I was younger".

She received her criminology degree with her family at the ceremony.

"Dad was more excited for graduation than I was," said Miss Fussell, who is currently working as a supply teacher ahead of a teacher training course.

"I'm the first person in my family to go to university and he just thinks it's amazing."

'Didn't know any different'

Growing up in Radstock, near Bath, she said she did not realise her life was different to other children's.

She was already caring for her disabled sibling when her mother went in for a routine operation and was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Miss Fussell said she didn't realise her family life was different to other people's

"Looking back it was a lot, but I didn't know any different," Miss Fussell said.

"I didn't know other kids were out playing on their bikes.

"I now know it wasn't a normal way to grow up, but I've made my peace with it."

The family made several moves across the country to access healthcare and get closer to friends and family.

Tragically, her mother died two years after her diagnosis, aged 38, when Miss Fussell was nine.

University summer school

For her incredible work as a young carer, she won a Pride Of Somerset Youth Award.

She was nominated by her father, who also lives with a disability.

Miss Fussell's turbulent early life meant she went to six primary schools and five secondary schools and had all but ruled out going to university.

But, having spent time at a University of Bristol summer school, she chanced upon its foundation course in arts and social sciences.

"It was a wonderful course," she recalled.

"It was a small cohort and some were 18, some were 75. It was so wholesome, I really found my feet again."

Miss Fussell went on to study criminology at the university, including an exchange year in the US state of Michigan.

"I was walking to campus one day and I had to stop and think, 'I'm living on a different continent, 3,500 miles away from the family I've been looking after'," she said.

Miss Fussell became the first member of her family to go to university

"It was mind-blowing, the best of experience of my life.

"It made me realise there are opportunities beyond being at home."

Miss Fussell has spent the past nine months as a supply teacher at a Bristol school and will now study for her post-graduate qualification at the University of Bristol to be a secondary maths teacher.

She said: "It's going to be really hard to say goodbye to the kids.

"I'm really pleased I ended up where I am. I kept stumbling until I landed.

"It's been the most ridiculous, crazy journey.

"Eight years ago I genuinely didn't think I'd end up anywhere, for so long it felt like the system was against me.

"I'm behind where people my age are, but I feel privileged to be in the position I'm in."

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